Hi all,
Whenever I read about mystery illnesses with many symptoms, I don't feel as alone. I was an pretty good athlete and hit the gym most days. I'm a 68 year old man and have had 10 surgeries from sports (knees, elbow, shoulders), but still played all sports until 2012. In 2012, an insurance exam picked up Hep C. This was before all of the new medications were approved by FDA. I went through 2 hellish treatments using Interferon and a couple of other torture pills. Treatments were a failure until the new treatments were available. 1 month of treatment made it undetectable to this day. January 2018 during a physical and other tests, I was shown to have Mantle Cell Lymphoma (hardest to treat). While my care team suggested a series of chemo, ending with a bone marrow transplant. Immediately went to MSK and was lucky to be accepted into a trial that didn't involve bone marrow transplant. 15 months of chemo with monthly weekend stays at MSK for intense treatment. After the 15 months, it was undetectable! Still have to get tested twice a year, and still no detection. OK, now the tough part;
I had a bulging disc in my upper spine (neck). Was able to see the top Neurosurgeon at Columbia and was talked into a posterior spine surgery for nerve decompression with fusion from C-2- T-1. Surgery was not only horrendous, it was a failure. A year after the surgery, I went for a revision that also ended up a failure. Now it's symptom time. Long Covid that has taken all of my energy and takes me 3 hours to get going every day No medications made it easier to get going and get out of the fog that lasts most of the day. A few months ago, I had to be taken by ambulance from my internist's office to the hospital due to A-Fib. HR was 160 at rest. Have been taking the protocol meds ever since that day, and am still in A-Fib. Doctor wants to perform an ablation, but am getting other opinions to hopefully come up with other options. In addition, beginning 2 years ago, I began having issues with my eyes. Take dry eyes out of the picture after being treated with everything known to man. I've been to 5 different Ophthalmologists and am going to a Lid specialist in 2 weeks. Nothing helps the irritation and pain in both eyes that never stops. I'm currently seeing a special Physiologist and PT practice that she works with. A mix of Eastern and Western medicine that understands what I'm going through. She's like a God to me. PT is way different than I'm used to and seems to be helping with all of the pain from cervical surgeries. Numb fingers and toes, pain in both shoulders and elbows. There are times I'm lying in bed during a pain episode thinking how to end it all. That's about it for now, thanks for reading